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CNN anchor Poppy Harlow had a testy exchange with Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp Friday as the two discussed how the president responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
"You all spend a lot of time wanting to criticize the president about his response," Schlapp told Harlow. Harlow responded: "I want to ask you about the facts because you have more than 130,000 Americans who died. This is a wartime president -- self-proclaimed -- who has now seen more deaths from coronavirus than the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and September 11th -- and the Obama administration left you guys a 69-page playbook on this."
"Are you kidding me?" Schlapp shot back in reference to former President Obama. "They ended up depleting our stockpile ... this is not a question that you're asking. This is about you all," she added.
This particular issue has been disputed by fact-checkers.
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"It is," Harlow interjected, prompting Harlow to respond: "No, it's not."
Things got especially tense when Harlow referenced a Texas doctor, Dr. Jane Appleby, who said one of her patients died after believing the coronavirus was a hoax.
"She said in the last few days that a patient of their's in his 30s died, and the nurse that treated him for COVID said that when he was dying among his final words were this -- 'I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.'"
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Harlow followed that question by implicating Trump. "For months and months, why did the president continue to downplay the severity of this?" she asked.
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"That is so false what you are saying, Poppy," Schlapp responded. She added that Trump had taken "decisive and bold actions from the beginning," referring specifically to the travel restrictions he implemented early in the pandemic.
"When his medical experts came to him and said, 'look, we need to put these travel restrictions on China,' the president acted immediately," Schlapp said.
After some crosstalk about former Vice President Joe Biden, Harlow proceeded to quote Trump making comments that indicated the risk from the coronavirus was low.
Schlapp pushed back, arguing that Trump worked with state governors to ensure they had the resources they needed to fight the virus.
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"They don't have the resources they need," Harlow responded. Schlapp shot back: "What are you talking about?" Harlow referenced Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan who said it was "hopeless" to wait for Trump to lead the coronavirus response. After CNN played a clip of Hogan criticizing the president's handling, Schlapp said Hogan had always been a critic of Trump's.
"This president and the vice president -- the coronavirus team -- have been actively working on getting a vaccine, have been actively working on ensuring that they are getting these dosages of Remdesivir to ensure that that helps across the board," Schlapp said. "We are deploying HHS teams in these hotspots. We are also ensuring that we are deploying thousands of doctors and nurses to these states."